March 2017

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Page A14 MARCH 2017 FUNERAL HOME & CEMETERY NEWS S ec t i on A
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1015
Funeral Directors Research,Inc.
AMRA INSTRUMENT, LLC
623 N. Tower (P.O. Box 359)
Centralia, WA 98531
“the shorter the supply line the better off you are”
WEB DIRECT GIFT & PRICING
TM
®
Gary Finch is a licensed funeral director and embalmer in Texas.
He founded Compliance Plus in 1992. Today, they represent over
700 funeral homes and cemeteries in 37 states. Compliance Plus
also serves as an advisory consultant for the International Order of
the Golden Rule. For more information on Compliance Plus visit
. Contact Gary by phone at (800) 950-
1101 or by e-mail at .
By Gary Finch
OSHA
Compliance for giving employees annual hazard communications
training when it was not required. No one has ever
been cited for unnecessarily documenting formalde-
hyde training. The most frequent training related ci-
tation is for not giving employees the required train-
ing. Next, it is for not giving employees the required
training in the required time. That means every twelve
months (give or take a few days). If you stretch annual
requirement to thirteen months, it invites a mild cita-
tion.
In summary, over-training and over-documenting is
nothing to worry about. Now if you happen to have a
problem keeping secretaries, you may want to rethink
requiring them to participate in the annual blood-
borne pathogen safety training. It’s just a thought.
Note to employers: Don’t forget to give 2017 annual
renewal training to your exposed employees.
“Who, When, What,
Why and Where”
The Straight Dope on Funeral
Home Safety Training
Even among funeral homes who do diligent training
every year, failure to do the right kind of safety training
is rampant. In some cases, they over-train. This is not
a citable offense. It does no harm. In other cases, they
train the wrong people. Again, this is not a penalty.
Some over-document while others under-document.
Even that is okay if the employer provides the required
employee safety training. Let’s dig inside OSHA train-
ing requirements.
OSHA’s required annual training is a different animal
than initial employee training. It is only for employees
using respirators, or those exposed to formaldehyde,
blood, or needles. After that, state regulations come
into play. A few states require annual Hazard Commu-
nications training. Federal OSHA does not. In federal
OSHA, training is required whenever a new hazard is in-
troduced into the workplace.
I see errors of a different kind. Most are meaningless but
they might surprise you. Many employers in this industry
want to excel at compliance. Some insists that all employ-
ees monitor all the annual training that is offered. What
purpose does it serve for a secretary to sit in on formal-
dehyde safety training? It shows the employer is gener-
ous with employee time? More than a few are not. Do I
think that kind of broad safety training is beneficial? No.
I would prefer that employers take the two hours a secre-
tary dedicates to bloodborne pathogen, needle stick and
formaldehyde safety training and trade it for one or two
hours of office safety training. While that would make
more sense to me, putting the secretarial pool through
the chain of infection of HIV is not something an OSHA
inspector would ever criticize.
Over-compliance is common but it is never a problem
with me. Do you document your annual formaldehyde
training? It’s fine if you do but you cannot find anything
in the formaldehyde standard that requires you to docu-
ment annual formaldehyde training. Even so, I recom-
mend you document it. Interestingly, the bloodborne
pathogen standard does require annual documentation.
It even gets into documenting multiple areas. In the real
world, one simple documentation does the trick.
There is a reason I haven’t written about this in twenty-
five years of regulatory consulting. No one ever got cited
Ribbon Cutting for the new Coleman’s Family Mortuary
Coleman’s Family Mortuary opens in Texas
WOODVILLE,TX— Own-
ers Kendall and Patience
Coleman are pleased to
announce that Coleman’s
Family Mortuary held
their Ribbon Cutting Cer-
emony on November 10,
2016 in Woodville. On
August 20, 2015 Kendall
and Patience stepped out
on faith and purchased a
building in Tyler County,
formally an antique shop,
and on October 4, 2016 they re-
ceived licenses to officially operate
as a funeral home in Texas.
After closing on the building,
the Colemans spent most of the
next year converting the store
into a funeral home. The em-
balming room and chapel, along
with a family lounge and casket
display room were created from
the existing space.
The Colemans are excited to
open their doors to the commu-
nity. Serving families with the
Love of God is their motto and
that is the way they live and raise
their four children.
Kendall graduated from Com-
monwealth Institute of Funeral Ser-
vices with an Associates Degree
in Applied Sciences in 1999. Pa-
tience, with over 15 years in hu-
man resources and executive
recruitment, maintains all back of-
fice duties. Funeral Director Mar-
vin Coleman , Kendall’s father,
also attended Commonwealth Institute
and became licensed in 1980.
“We believe that it is more of an op-
portunity to serve everyone who walks
through our doors, than to sell to
them,” said Coleman.